Here’s Why The Marching Band From The “ON” Kinetic Manifesto Film Was The Perfect Fit For BTS

BTS just dropped the Kinetic Manifesto Film: Come Prima for “ON”, and the music video featured dozens more performers—all members of the marching band Blue Devils. The inclusion of a marching band caught many ARMYs off guard, but here’s why they were the perfect fit.

The Blue Devils are a World Class competitive marching band based in California, US. Founded in 1957, the corps has won numerous awards over the past decades.

The band was certainly a standout in the music video, dancing energetically and playing their instruments as the BTS members sang alongside them.

Jin actually tried to spoil the marching band during the comeback livestream a few hours before the video’s release! When asked to write down a big spoiler, he wrote the word “marching band” in Korean—prompting the rest of the members to freak out because it was too big of a spoiler

Jin was assigned to wrote a whole sentence for a lil bit spoiler for their comeback but it became chaotic when he wrote a major spoiler and everyone panicked lmfao pic.twitter.com/YXZyNcrCQV

In the end, Jin wrote “large scale performance” as his spoiler instead, which was still a pretty good clue for the huge Blue Devils band.

Featuring a marching band in the video worked perfectly considering the song itself is filled with brass and percussion instruments that sound exactly like a marching band performance. But the real question is, why would BTS choose the Blue Devils specifically for their “ON” Kinetic Manifesto Film? We have a pretty good idea.

Social issues have always been a major focus of BTS’s music and concepts, from touching on mental illness to encouraging fans to speak themselves. What makes the Blue Devils such a perfect fit for the music video is that they also share those values.

According to the Blue Devils official website, the program “permanently enriches the lives of young people through a commitment to youth development and performance excellence”. Doesn’t that sound exactly like BTS?

They also aim to build “character, pride, and self-confidence” in everyone who participates in the band, just like BTS has done through campaigns like UNICEF’s Love Myself.

The website goes on to list numerous core values and principles that the band has in common with BTS. For example, they strive for “Innovative Excellence” in all their programs, just like BTS has transformed the K-Pop scene with innovative music and concepts.

Another core value the Blue Devils share with BTS is “Global Citizenship”, something BTS has definitely demonstrated through the group’s UNICEF campaign and charity efforts.

Plus, aside from their shared morals, the Blue Devils Marching Band is also the most-awarded Drum Corps International Champion, holding the record with 19 titles. What better marching band could there be for a K-Pop group with dozens of unprecedented records under its name?